


At the End of It All

by dreamsandswords



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, funky lil time players, i care for aradia and caliborn very much and they should be friends and talk :(, sollux isnt in this he's just mentioned, this is based on a comic on tumblr it's linked in the notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 16:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30091608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsandswords/pseuds/dreamsandswords
Summary: Everything ends. Stories, worlds, lives. Even the immortal must succumb.(Aradia greets her last soul and Caliborn faces his ending.)
Relationships: Aradia Megido & Caliborn (Homestuck), Sollux Captor & Aradia Megido
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	At the End of It All

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i care for aradia and caliborn so much thank you for coming to my ted talk. this fic is based off of a wonderful comic on tumblr! go read it im obsessed  
> https://steelcorridor.tumblr.com/post/141999942811/i-dunno-man

You knew you would die eventually. You didn’t think about it, because what the hell is the point in thinking about it? You are the Lord of Time, time is your paltry bitch. But still, you die. Inevitability, or some shit.

Everything is dark. You never paid attention to the darkness before. You don’t like it. You have sifted through every timeline like sand in an hourglass, seen everything the world has to offer. It offers bright eyes and screaming, mostly. You never thought it could be dark.

You sit for a while, thinking very deep thoughts about the matter. Until it is not dark. Or rather, there’s a faint glimmer on the horizon. It’s coming closer.

“Hello, stranger!” it says.

“GOODBYE. LIGHT,” you say, before fucking decking it. Who the hell does that light think it is? Talking to you _._

The light seems unfazed. “You’d be surprised how often I get that reaction.”

You decide to stop calling it the light, because that’s stupid, and instead call it the girl. Because she appears to be a girl. Though you don’t have much experience with girls outside your stupid sister and her idiotic friends, you think this girl is around sixteen earth years. You are immortal, so that doesn’t mean much to you.

“FEMALE. WHERE AM I,” you demand. She has kept you in the dark long enough. Get it? Dark? Because she is actually the one who ended the darkness? That one was very clever, you think.

She smiles serenely. “This is our final resting place,” she says.

“DON’T LUMP ME IN WITH YOU. FEMALE. I AM FAR SUPERIOR. I WILL REST SOMEWHERE BETTER.”

“There is nowhere else.” And she _grins._ Mouth wide and teeth sharp and gaze absolutely, morbidly, _thrilled._ “You’ve been around too long, you’re behind on the times. The Horrorterrors that populated the furthest ring are dead, the ghosts they housed are gone. Paradox Space is crumbling at the seams! No space, only time. Ticking, ticking.” She looks you in the eyes, and you _don’t_ shiver. “There’s only us.”

“ONLY US,” you repeat.

She nods, becoming more and more energized.

“You are my last soul to greet!” she cheers.

“AND THEN WHAT HAPPENS?” you ask, even though you don’t care. You’re just taking pity on this stupid girl, because she’s been alone so long.

“Who knows!” She spins around and takes a seat over empty void. “I already died once, I don’t feel like doing it again. And there’s no more souls to guide. Maybe I’ll just stay here!”

“FOREVER?” You know exactly how long forever is.

Her eye gets that sharp, excited glint again. It’s still _not_ unsettling. “Forever.”

“WELL. I DON’T CARE,” you say finally. “I DON’T WANT TO SPEND FOREVER WITH SOME LOWLY BITCH. NO MATTER HOW MUCH SHE BEGS. SO I WILL BE GOING NOW.”

“Go where?” she giggles, but she doesn’t stop you.

You turn away, setting out into the void. Stupid female. There can’t be _nothing._

There’s nothing. It’s empty. Like the Dirk human’s juju. You stop in your movement. You don’t want to think about Dirk, for no reason in particular. You’ve travelled to every point in time, floated through the void with increasing irritation. There is nowhere but here. Nothing but this emptiness.

You’re stubborn, though. You won’t go back to the girl. That would make you look desperate. You’re just fine in the void, thank you very much. Nothingness is better than nothingness plus an annoying female.

She’s probably lonely, though. You’re not, of course. But she might be. And who are you to deprive the masses of your glory, anyway? No one, that’s who. So you float around you _think_ back the way you came. You’re sure it’ll be fine.

You do end up floating back to her, much quicker than expected. She’s just sitting there, staring at the sky.

You shift awkwardly, your frame too bulky for such a shy movement. You’re _not_ shy, though. This girl is beneath you. “SO, FEMALE. WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU?”

“I’m a god!” She looks toward you and smiles. _Wow, ego much?_ “But what you probably want to know is why I’m here. I’m the caretaker of the afterlife. That’s become a bit of a useless job, now that the dream bubbles are gone, though!”

“WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?” You never really cared about the dream bubbles. They were just another thing for you to smash along the way.

“The players won their game, and this universe became obsolete! Everyone is gone, now. They have been gone for a very long time. So long the Horrorterrors turned to dust, along with everything else!”

“BUT YOU’RE HERE.”

“I am the Maid of Time. Looking after death is my duty. And there was one more soul left to greet!” She smiles at you.

“WELL YOU HAVE GREETED ME. CARETAKER. YOU CAN GO NOW. I WILL BE JUST FINE. BETTER, EVEN. WITHOUT A LOWLY DISTRACTION LIKE YOU.”

She pretends like she didn’t hear you, even though she definitely did, which is very rude, and starts humming and skipping around like a stupid baby.

“YOU LOOK STUPID,” you tell her.

“You have to look stupid sometimes to be happy,” she says. “We never introduced ourselves! How rude of me. I’m Aradia.” You don’t actually care.

“YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO I AM.” Really, who doesn’t?

“I do,” she says. She looks at you expectantly. Fine, you suppose you can indulge her, if she’s so desperate.

“I’M.” You’re a lot of things. You’re Lord English, you’re Lil Cal, Arquius, Jack Noir. A million other names from a million other iterations of this world. You are the Lord of Time. 

But here? At the end of it all? With no time to command and no faces to steal, you’re just... “CALIBORN.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Caliborn.” She sticks out her hand.

You look at it. “WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO WITH THIS?”

“Shake it! Like this.” She grabs your hand and moves it with her hand. You feel a flush creeping up your neck. How indecent. You didn’t realize this female was a slut.

“UM. ISN’T THIS A BIT. FORWARD.”

“No clue! It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to anyone.” She doesn’t seem very bothered by this fact. Wow. What is up with this girl.

You sit down over the void like you’d seen her do and she follows suit. You sit in silence for a long time. At least, what you perceive as a long time. Time is infinite and nonexistent, here at the end. Really, it always has been.

“FEMALE,” you address her.

“Caliborn?”

“I’M BORED.”

“You get used to it!” she says cheerfully and descends into silence once again. Jegus, is that all she’s been doing? Getting used to it?

“WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN THERE WAS MORE SOULS?”

“I watched them! Back when the dream bubbles were around there were a million adventures to go on. So many different dreams and memories,” she says wistfully. “Most of my time was spent with greetings, though. Explaining the afterlife to new ghosts, letting them grieve. Sollux said I wasted too much time with the ‘2appy 2hiit,’ but I think it was warranted.”

“SOLLUX?” Seriously, there’s another one?

“He was my companion,” she says. She’s not sad when she says it, but her voice has lost some of it’s serene cheer. Hm.

“DID HE DIE?”

“This is the afterlife, Caliborn.”

“SO? DID HE?”

“Yes,” she laughs. “But that was a while ago. He left.”

“WHAT A JERK,” you say without really knowing why. If you could leave you would in a heartbeat.

“No, he was just lonely. It was just me and him for so long after the ghosts left. He said he would wait for me in the new world.” She looks to the sky again.

“AND IF HE ISN’T?”

“What do you mean?”

“YOU SAID YOU NEVER PLAN ON LEAVING HERE. WHAT IF HE GETS TIRED OF WAITING.”

She hums thoughtfully. “Then he doesn’t wait. Time is infinite, there’s no point waiting for anything, really. Not when it’s all happening, always.”

“TRUE. I NEVER WAIT. I TAKE WHAT I WANT. WHEN I WANT. TIME IS MY BITCH.”

“Yes, Lord of Time. One who controls time. One who controls death. You’re sort of like my employer, with all the ghosts you racked up.”

“I KILLED MANY PEOPLE.”

You fall into silence again. You don’t know how long it lasts, just you and her sitting and staring at the sky. And you know, better than ever, how pointless it is to measure time. Time is everything and nothing, flowing in rivers that don’t exist. Flooding your heartbeat and veins. It’s an abstract concept for children scared of the things they don’t understand. You’re not a kid, though. You never were.

You sit, and Aradia watches over you. The final dead soul in a dead world, and its final caretaker.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i might continue this if the motivation and inspiration stars align. i have a vague semblance of an ending in mind but not much more than that lmao  
> (also feedback is greatly appreciated and feel free to tell me if i spell something wrong sob)


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